Monday, September 03, 2012

After coming within a single point of winning the NASCAR Sprint
Cup Series championship a year ago, Carl Edwards is now one race away from missing
the 2013 Chase.

Edwards' back is against the wall

A blown engine in the late going of Sunday’s Advocare 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway
relegated Edwards to a 36th-place finish that leaves him winless on
the season and 14th in Sprint Cup Series championship points. He now
trails Kasey Kahne, Kyle Busch and Jeff Gordon in both points and victories,
and must win Saturday night’s regular season finale at Richmond International
Raceway to have any chance of racing for the 2012 championship.

“This is not the interview I wanted to do after the race,” admitted
Edwards after Sunday’s race. “It looks like (we broke) a piston or something.
It started making noise about 25-30 laps ago, and it’s just hard to put into
words. I was kind of in denial. I thought, ‘No, it’s OK. It’s alright,’ and
then finally it broke.

“That’s just how our season has been going,” he said. “I don’t
know what the reason is. We treat these engines like gold and we hardly ever
have engine trouble. But we’ll go to Richmond, win that race and somehow maybe
a miracle will happen.

“We’ll make the Chase and go win this championship. That’s our
mission.”

Edwards' night ended too early

The Roush Fenway Racing driver waxed philosophical, saying, “Somebody
is trying to teach me something here. I told my wife today, ‘There’s something
in (Las) Vegas I’m not supposed to go do.’ I’ve been trying to live right and do
the right things, so I hope there’s a reason for all of this. But man, it’s so
frustrating. I hope we get all of this out of our system soon, because it sure
is fun to win races and be in the hunt. This is not fun.”

Scenarios now exist where Edwards could win Saturday night at
Richmond and still not make the Chase. Despite that bleak outlook, however, he said
he and his team are determined to keep digging until the final verdict is in.

“We could still be within distance,” he insisted. “Anything can
happen. I don’t ever quit, and this team doesn’t ever quit. We’ve got big
shoulders (and) if there’s anybody that can take it, we’ll take it and go out
and do our very best.

“I’m just trying to come to grips with how
pivotal this is for our season, how bad it is. But that’s just the way it is.”